*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

January 20, 2015
Read it online: http://bit.ly/1CLmF4P

Dear All,

It brings us great pleasure to announce that the DuraSpace Board of 
Directors has chosen Debra Hanken Kurtz to serve as the new CEO for the 
Organization.  Kurtz is currently the Executive Director of the Texas 
Digital Library.  She will begin in her new role on February 16, 2015 
and establish an office in Austin, Texas to manage DuraSpace business 
operations.

Kurtz brings key relevant experience and skills to DuraSpace. As 
Executive Director of the Texas Digital Library, she managed and grew 
membership, operations, and services. She participates in working and 
planning groups for DPN and SHARE. At both Duke University and UNC 
Chapel Hill Libraries, Kurtz provided leadership and direction for 
digital collections, public websites, and early planning efforts for 
both libraries’ institutional repositories. She was an active partner 
within the Triangle Research Libraries Network and has been a voice for 
Kuali OLE, an open-source integrated library system built by and for 
academic and research libraries. Kurtz’s complete background can be 
found on linkedin 
<https://www.linkedin.com/pub/debra-hanken-kurtz/6/719/671>.

The DuraSpace team and Board of Directors is enthusiastic about working 
with Kurtz and establishing the strategic direction for DuraSpace over 
the coming years in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital research 
and scholarship. Leveraging open source technology development to 
advance our communities’ goals and objectives will continue to be a 
focus for the DuraSpace organization.

All member organizations will have an opportunity to meet and talk with 
Kurtz at the upcoming DuraSpace Membership Summit in Washington DC on 
March 11-12. Meeting invitations and details will be sent out later this 
week to all member organizations.

The search was conducted by a committee of the Board, augmented by 
MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian at UC Davis, and Julia Trimmer, 
Manager Faculty Data Systems, Duke University.

We are grateful to everyone for their continued support throughout this 
process. As a result of your ongoing interest, engagement and 
participation DuraSpace is well-positioned to continue to serve our 
communities by providing leadership and innovation in the development 
and deployment of open source technologies and managed services that 
promote durable, persistent access to digital data.

Sincerely,

Michele Kimpton, Chief Executive Officer, DuraSpace

Paul N. Courant, Chair, DuraSpace Board of Directors, University of Michigan


/On behalf of the DuraSpace Board of Directors:/


Dan Cohen, Executive Director, Digital Public Library of America

Mike Conlon, Co-Director, University of Florida Clinical and 
Translational Science Institute, and Director of Biomedical Informatics, 
UF College of Medicine

Paul N. Courant, Harold T. Shapiro Professor of Public Policy, Professor 
of Economics, and Professor of Information, the University of Michigan

Tom Cramer, Chief Technology Strategist and Associate Director of 
Digital Library Systems & Services, Stanford University

Charles J. Henry, President, Council on Library and Information Resources

Anne Jarvis, University Librarian, University of Cambridge

Heather Joseph, Executive Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic 
Resources Coalition

Tyler Walters, Dean of University Libraries, Virginia Tech University

Laura C. Wood, Director of Tisch Library, Tufts University